Sex offender’s fate in limbo: Judge receives report to determine classification for transgender, former youth pastor facing prison

By Greg Jordan
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
April 24, 2017

https://goo.gl/h40sMj

James Lilly, 24, was charged with one count of incest, one count of second-degree sexual assault and 31 counts of first-degree sexual abuse, Detective K.L. Adams, with the Bluefield Police Department, said.

James Lilly, 24, was charged with one count of incest, one count of second-degree sexual assault and 31 counts of first-degree sexual abuse, Detective K.L. Adams, with the Bluefield Police Department, said.

PRINCETON — A diagnostic evaluation was completed recently for a former youth pastor and admitted transgender sex offender who is facing a prison term after pleading guilty last year to sexual abuse first degree.

James Lilly, 25, of Bluefield pleaded guilty in August 2016 in Mercer County Circuit Court to three counts of sexual abuse in the first degree. Raleigh County Judge John A. Hutchinson, who was assigned to the case after Mercer County Judge Derek Swope recused himself, delayed Lilly’s sentencing on Dec. 21, 2016 and remanded him to the state Department of Corrections so a diagnostic study could be completed with regard to how he would be classified as an inmate.

Lilly was arrested Jan. 12, 2016 and indicted in February that same year on 28 counts of sexual abuse in the first degree as well as charges of sexual assault third degree and incest.

After the arrest, Detective K.L. Adams of the Bluefield Police Department said that Lilly, by his own admission, was transgender and in the process of becoming a woman.

Lilly once served with youth ministry at the Christ Episcopal Church in Bluefield. He served at the church for six months, and was hired with a grant from the Diocese of West Virginia, Rector Chad Slater said after the arrest. Slater said there had not been any complaints about Lilly at the church and no allegations of misconduct.

The victim came forward after learning that Lilly was pursuing a teaching career and student teaching at a school. The principal at Bluefield Intermediate School said later that Lilly was a student observer in 2015, but had little interaction with the students. Adams said earlier that the victim in the case is a juvenile female. He said the abuse began in 2009.

During the December 2016 hearing, Hutchinson spoke of Lilly’s pre-sentencing report and emphasized that gender disorientation is a recognized condition, saying that he psychologically identifies with being a female.

In mid-April, Hutchinson informed the court that he had received the report resulting from the diagnostic interview, and sentencing was scheduled for a later date. In his order, Hutchinson instructed the Department of Corrections (DOC) to send a representative to Lilly’s sentencing hearing to inform the court about the policies, procedures and protections at DOC facilities “in the event the court determines a sentence in the penitentiary is appropriate for this defendant.”

In the plea agreement, each of the three sexual abuse charges would have a term of one to five years in prison, but two of the charges would be probated, meaning no prison time, according to court records. After serving a term of one to five years, Lilly would be required to register for life as a sex offender, and to be under 10 to 50 years of enhanced supervision.